To celebrate the birthday of the original DOOM game, we’re looking at how the franchise’s iconic enemies have evolved over the years.
Doom, released in 1993, is a first-person shooter video game that revolutionized the genre with its groundbreaking new first person view, horror elements from hell, and most importantly iconic enemy designs. The game’s enemies, ranging from the lowly Imp to the towering Cyberdemon, have been iconic for decades, but the evolution of these designs is something to be appreciated.
The Imp
The Imp is one of the most common enemies in Doom, and also one of the most iconic. Its small stature and agile movements make it a challenging opponent, while its distinctive red skin and horns give it a menacing appearance. The Imp’s fireballs are a deadly threat, and its ability to teleport around the map makes it even more unpredictable.
During the first game, the imps really showcased the horns in their design with green looking skin, and moved quicker than most other enemies. However they were not truly agile thanks to the hardware limitations at the time. It wasn’t until Doom 3 that this took place with Imps losing a lot of their character looks to favor a more horror feel, and more agile nature. However this is when a faster fire rate of their fireballs was also implemented. During the Doom 2016 reboot, the team found a way to blend the agile Doom 3 nature with the looks of a modernized version of the original game, bringing back the horns and skin, while reverting their facial features.
The Pinky Demon
The Pinky Demon is a large, hulking beast with a single, massive eye. It is slow and lumbering, but its powerful charge attack can deal devastating damage. The Pinky Demon’s appearance is one of the most evolutionary in the series, never really returning to the original designs.
In the original Doom games, Pinky could be heard roaring as it roamed around enclosed corridors. When triggering it the demon would run at you, with a big face, muscular arms, and it’s pink nature that gave it the name. In Doom 3 the demon took a whole new design which now took away its face in favor of an alien looking design, running on four legs, and being much larger. It was a little more rare to run into Pinky until the Doom 2016 reboot when it took another design overhaul.The new detailed design included a larger, more pronounced mouth and sharper features, to make it much more menacing, and it became more frequently seen again.
The Cacodemon
The Cacodemon is a floating, spherical demon with a single, large eye and two smaller eyes on its sides. It is armed with a powerful laser attack and can also launch homing projectiles. The Cacodemon’s design is inspired by the Beholder from Dungeons & Dragons, but it has a more grotesque and disturbing appearance.
While other demons in the game have gone through pretty dramatic changes, the Cacodemon seems to be the one evolving as intended as the tech allows it. Nothing dramatically changed about it’s design beyond how it specifically attacks, but the evolution of it has made it one of the most menacing looking enemies in the latest Doom titles. Growing more horns, more grotesque looking, but somehow less menacing due to the slower and predictable attacks.
The Cyberdemon
The Cyberdemon is the ultimate boss of Doom; a towering, cybernetic demon with a massive plasma cannon. The Cyberdemon is extremely powerful and can take a lot of damage before it is defeated. Its design is inspired by the Terminator from the film of the same name, but it is even more intimidating and awe-inspiring.
Similar to Cacodemon, this is another enemy in the Doom series who seems to be evolving as tech allows it. However, unlike a majority of the other enemies in the series, the true peak of Cyberdemon’s design was during Doom 3 with a hellish design that was truly terrifying when he appeared. In Doom 2016 the enemy was redesigned a bit to be more bulky and towering, while in Eternal it got a whole new name called the Tyrant, and returned to the more robotic nature, it also went back to being a true boss battle like the original appearance.
There are many other enemies that also evolved through the series such as the basic “zombieman” which you will be shooting at the majority of the series, but ironically becomes less and less important as tech advances allow other enemies to be more prominent. Another enemy that basically only got visual upgrades is the Lost Souls, floating skulls on fire that charge at you. While others simply just look overall cooler, like the Spider Mastermind, which in my opinion needs an overhaul to be a little less underwhelming.
The enemy designs in Doom are a major part of what makes the game so memorable. They are creative, imaginative, and terrifying, and they helped to set a new standard for first-person shooter games, but more importantly these characters were designed to change how we played games for decades to come. Players now had to virtually dodge blasts that came directly at the screen, and with future advancements in tech players now had the opportunity to jump around and become more agile, so the demons had to adapt as well. In Doom 3 we got to see a total swing of all the enemy designs going in a totally different, and scarier, approach which slowed them down and created modern twists, but somehow they all functioned perfectly.
The popularity of this franchise, even today, is a testament to the truly exceptional character designs—both in terms of aesthetics and mechanics. These designs have shown a remarkable evolution from their early 90s origins.
Did we miss you favorite Doom demon? Let us know.
